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Amazon, eBay, Google, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace…the list goes on and on. What do they have in common? At one point in time, they were some of the best startups you had never heard of…until someone picked up on their greatness and ignited a chain reaction. I hope to do the same with the startups below. They truly are hidden gems and worthy of a mention. Right now, they are some of the best startups you’ve probably never heard of.

Delver

A business associate introduced me to Israel-based Delver several months ago, and I’ve been checking them out ever since. The company provides an “intelligent” social search engine that delivers results based on a person’s social connections. Utilizing the personalization and relevance of an individual’s online social network, Delver searches through publicly displayed content found on “social networking profiles, Web sites, blogs, bookmarks and photo and video sharing sites.” Results are prioritized by what is flagged as being relevant to not only the person performing the search, but to that person’s friends, colleagues, family – anyone that exists in their immediate and extended social network. This is what is really nice about Delver. Say you are visiting Manhattan and looking for a good Greek restaurant. You can do a search via Google or Yahoo! and receive a million results. The query returns results and ranks them according to a bunch of parameters that most of us will never understand. But I can assure you that neither Google or Yahoo! cares about what Greek restaurants your friends ate at and truly enjoyed when they visited Manhattan two years ago. Enter Delver. Clever, huh?

4Sale4Now

Built for those who like to wheel and deal or dicker over the price of an item, 4Sale4Now has the potential to turn eBay upside down. This hidden gem operates on the traditional online auction format except that instead of prices going up – they go down over time. The site enables sellers to regularly discount their products and services, in turn allowing buyers to purchase when prices are right for them. Take for example the “World’s Smallest” Bluetooth Headset from Samsung. Originally listed for $79.99, the price has now dropped 50 percent to $39.99. With the economy in rough shape, 4Sale4Now caters to those bargain hunters looking for a few good deals. In my opinion, it’s the right concept at the right time.

VideoThang

I had the pleasure of meeting Kathy Sharpe, the founder of VideoThang while I was in New York last year. After hearing a presentation about the company’s products and services (and giving it a good ole’ test drive), I was left thoroughly impressed. VideoThang is a free, easy-to-use video editing and sharing application that is 100 percent content-independent. What I mean by that is you can take your digital pictures, music, existing videos, etc. and mash them altogether to create an entirely new video hit! VideoThang supports an array of imported file types and exports files optimized for YouTube, Facebook and others. And you don’t have to be a bit tech savvy to produce some pretty awesome stuff. On the other end of the spectrum, VideoThang offers marketers a way to reach consumers when they are in the moment.

Shop It To Me

Shop It To Me is like having a free online personal shopper. The company’s service sends email alerts – called Salemail™, when products are about to go on sale. This prevents the endless hours spent scouring the Web for deals and finding out about a sale too late. Its first product, Shop It To Me Apparel, is aimed squarely at shop-a-holics (aka women) everywhere. Users who have signed up for free accounts receive alerts on clothing matching their respective sizes and brand preferences as soon as the items go on sale. Imagine all the niche markets still left to tap into. Shop It To Me has a bright future.

Tags: 4Sale4Now, Amazon, cool startups, Delver, eBay, Facebook, hot startups, Kathy Sharpe, MySpace, Shop It To Me, startups to watch in 2009, VideoThang, YouTube